Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and evolutionist. He
was one of the founders of the Neo-
Lamarckian
school of evolutionary thought.
This school believed that changes in developmental (embryonic) timing,
not natural selection, was the driving force of evolution.
In 1867, Cope suggested that most changes in species occured by coordinated
additions to the ontogeny of all the individuals in a species.
Speciation proceeded by the addition of stages to the end of embryonic
sequences of development and by compression of earlier stages
into the earlier parts of the developmental sequence.
That is, a new developmental stage would be tacked onto the end of the
developmental process, pushing the old end stage further back in development.
Cope thought that groups of species that
shared similar developmental patterns could be grouped into more inclusive
groups (i.e. genera, families, and so on).

Cope tied together his notion of "accelerated growth" with
Lamarckian
ideas. He thought that parts of the body
most in use would be most likely to become better developed at the expense
of other, less used parts. That is, new
ontogenetic additions would cause some body parts to become very well
developed if those body parts were in heavy use. Divergence and diversity
were created through changes in timing of development in different organ
systems due to use. The more distantly related two species are, the more
their developmental patterns will vary deep into ontogeny.

Cope led many natural history surveys in the American West for the precursors
of the U.S. Geological Survey. He made many important finds on his trips,
including dinosaur discoveries
in western North America.
He was primarily a herpetologist and mammalogist and he described many
genera and species that are still used today.